Thursday, September 02, 2010

Thursday-8am

Karma's been lounging about this week so far--on her wooden pillow...
...out by her cat grass...
...and under the plastic stool in the bedroom. (It's like she knows something is amiss with the TV stand out of place--hehe!).
But this was her slinking off into the kitchen this morning. No rest for the wicked today! They started on the roof over our heads at 7:30am!
And, wouldn't you know it, my days and nights have been flipped this week--so I was just about ready to go to bed. No such luck. The stomping about and slamming of the nail gun aren't exactly conducive to sound sleep--hehe!
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So I thought it might be a good time to blog. :) I have so many pictures saved up and stuff to tell you...blogging less often might lead to some pretty long blogs, eh? ;)
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I made another couple of bookmark sheets--this green and gold one...
...and this turquoise and gold one. It's a good thing I love to make these! (I'll explain in a bit.)
Tuesday I went over to Dagan and Leah's for Craft Night. A little hello from Sammy...
...and Annie! ;)
Sorry, Leah! I caught you off guard--hehe!
We were getting ready to do a video for YouTube. Leah showed her light box that she put together for taking etsy pictures and how she takes them. So--finally have a new video up after seven months--tada!!! :):)
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Leah took some pictures this week and next week the plan is that we will work on posting a few things. Kind of alternate back and forth.
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This is what I brought over for Leah and I to decide on what we want for the Christmas card.
Had samples of the greens (ink pads) that we have for the tree. Trouble is, the green we liked (darker one) doesn't cover a larger surface very well and leaves random white spots. So Leah and I were thinking about trying a juicier pigment ink like Colorbox if they had a nice green. We decided we need more of the diamond Stickles for the snow on the trees so we could keep them all the same, if possible.
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And Leah had some red ribbon that worked perfectly for a splash of color! The ribbon will be tucked under the green embossed front.
And we both prefer the distressed tree circle. So you have to imagine the smaller circle being distressed--and done better than I did on the sample one (hadn't used the new Tim Holtz tool before).
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The plan for the inside of the card is to use the two curved sayings in a white oval (or circle if that looks better) on the inside of the card that will also be trimmed out in black. In the center I have a small holly stamp that will be stamped in green, too. Then the red berries will be jazzed up with red Stickles! Of course, I'll show you when I get a sample finished.
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Leah had an appointment Wednesday with her chiropractor in Moorhead. She picked me up after work and I read in the car while she went in for her appointment. Then we went over to the Office Max in Moorhead and talked to the girl about laminating the bookmarks. She said it was going to take a while (didn't seem to want us around really), so we said we'd go shop for a while and come back.
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We headed over to K & Krafts. She has the best selection of ink pads in the FM area!
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OH--little backtrack--I had already called K&K's to see if she had the diamond Stickles and a "pine" refill for the Ancient Page ink pad we have (we'll need it regardless). Nope! Out of both. So I called Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and JoAnn's. Nope. Nobody had the refill or the diamond Stickles. So I called back to K&K's and put in a special order for the refill and 2 diamond Stickles.
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Anyways, before we had even started shopping the girl from Office Max called Leah's cell phone and said she was having trouble with the bookmarks. Said they were too thick and not sealing right...we said we'd come by to look at what she had done so far after we were done shopping.
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We found a nice green Colorbox pigment ink pad and refill--and a Christmas Red Stickles! Perfect!! :) Something went right, anyways.
Then off we went back to the Moorhead Office Max. What a disaster!!
All the ones she had done were ruined.
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Wrinkles and puckers.
Absolutely cannot sell them. And she had used 34 of them before she quit.
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We have done this before--about 7 years ago or so. This is the worst job yet! Back then we had to go from the Office Max in Fargo to the one in Moorhead to get better work done. So--we decided to head for Fargo and try our luck over there.
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At the Fargo Office Max we got a guy who seemed to know what he was talking about. He expected problems because of the thickness. We gave him four bookmarks and he tried setting them farther apart in the laminator.
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Well, his did look better at first glance, but they were still not usable.
Just wouldn't heat seal properly.
On the way across the river to Fargo Leah and I had discussed some options--like seeing if we can pull the backings off without tearing the watercolor paper--and, if we can, then maybe using gesso on the backside & then stamping them? Seeing if we could buy some bookmark sleeves online and leaving them as they are?
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At least this guy at the Fargo Office Max came up with a suggestion we hadn't thought of. He wondered if we could make a color copy, trim it, and then laminate it. So we gave him four more bookmarks and he went to town! The copies are really good, as you can see. Can you tell which ones are the originals?
In this shot, if you can see the shine, you can see that the top ones are laminated. They are the copies.
But they were too flimsy for our taste. Very thin! He said there is a heavier laminate that we could use on the thinner paper to make them stiffer. We suggested using cheaper, thinner cardstock for copies and the regular laminate...
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...well--at least we do have several options to check out. We will figure out what will work best. It is funny that we always said we should have put a backing on the first watercolor bookmarks we made back then (we didn't like the sloppy backs from the ink and paint)...but it turned out to not be a good idea after all--ROFL!! Live and learn, right?
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Meanwhile--I have been really cutting back online! I quit facebook, flickr, two different writing groups (writing.com and shewrites.com), and even deleted a lot of bookmarked websites. I am streamlining my computer time. :):)
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Caroline was going to come and pick up the TV and stand with her boyfriend on Monday night. He doesn't get home till after 8:30pm, so it had to be later in the evening--which is okay with me as my days and nights are flipped anyways.
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Monday night. Rainstorm.
Tuesday I was gone to Dagan and Leah's.
Wednesday night. Rained.
We said we'd try for tonight.
Predicting rain--ROFL!!
But there's no hurry, so it's no big deal. :)
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That's what I've been doing this week. And the entire time I have been working on this blog it has been very noisy up on the roof. Hey! Wasn't that a song? Up On The Roof...? :)
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Karma won't be getting much sleep, either, today. It's taken her 2 1/2 hours to make her way into the living room. But she is poised to run at a moments notice. ;)
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Hope you've been having a great week! That's it for this morning from a very tired me in Fargo. These guys will have to go to lunch, right? ;)
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"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
Abraham Lincoln

9 comments:

Intense Guy said...

Oh goodness... James Taylor?

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be
And there the world below can't bother me
Let me tell you now

Well it's not so peaceful up there is it? :)

Sorry your bookmarks got ruined :( what hurts is that your nifty artwork was destroyed. You will always have some pictures of it - but I'm sure its not the same.

I was reading about a chinese man that slept with his head on a pillow all his life... You think Karma might be him, reincarnated?

http://dgyunxiang.en.alibaba.com/product/281666900-209497216/wooden_health_pillow.html (I had to chuckle at the translated chinese...

Serena Lewis said...

YIKES on the laminating disaster! At least you have some other options to think about. I do have to wonder why she did 34 before she realised it wasn't working????

Maybe do some with the antiqued tree and some without??

The light box video will be interesting...must check it out.

Have a lovely evening, Rita ~ xo

Anonymous said...

Karma is so cute out on the porch peeking through the grass at you lol

Oh man, that is such a bummer on your bookmarks after all that hard work, I hope all goes well for you there.

I loved the quote on your blog today that is just so true :o)

I think it is cool yall are doing a video for etsy I am gonna have to check all that out sometime soon.

Too bad about the roofers keeping you awake hopefully they will be quick with their work.

It was good to see a post from you and I sure hope you have a good day and night!

Rebag said...

Hi Rita... I love the photos of little Karma she is just a delight to see!

I am soooo sorry about your bookmarks!! What a shame, but as you said you have options and we always seem to live and learn dont we

I know what you mean about cutting back on computer time I have cut way back... It is funny you mentioned a writing group...My sister and I both belong to writing.com and I have not even been there in I bet 2 yrs WOW...

Hope you have a great evening and keep your chin up!


Reba~

AliceKay said...

So sorry to hear so many of your bookmarks were ruined. I can't believe she used 34 before realizing it wasn't working. :\ I hope you figure out what you need and can use soon.

Poor Karma...and poor you. I know what that noise can be like, especially when you want to rest. I hope they finish the roof soon.

(did they go to lunch yet?)

Toriz said...

That sucks about the bookmarks. Glad you have options you can try though. Good luck getting them sorted.

Glad you've both agreed on a card design. Sounds really nice.

Hope you got some sleep in the end, and that the work doesn't go on for too long.

akartisan said...

Don't know if any of this will help or not. When I was making bookmarks, I didn't put a backing on them before laminating and people didn't mind seeing the paint on the back. I stamped my name on the back first. They were able to put them fairly close in the laminator, then I trimmed them close to the edges, so you might be able to still salvage some of them, or if they didn't seal well, pull them apart. Another way is instead of laminating them, spray them with a fixatif or sealer or use acrylic paint watered down to get the same effect. When I had mine laminated, they always had to let it heat up for awhile to get it good and hot before putting the bookmarks through. Some of them still didn't seal and she said it was something to do with the paint, which is why I started sealing them with a spray instead.

Glad you're back to crafting again. It's trying to cool off here, but I'm hoping for a few more warm days before I have to move everything inside.

Rita said...

Iggy--James Taylor! Right! I might have to go find that on youtube--hehe! ;)

I've always been amazed that some cultures do use those hard pillows--head rests is more like it. Maybe Karma was a Siamese in her last incarnation? ROFL!! ;)

Serena--I know! Come on--34? She looked very nervous as we were walking up to the building. We could see her trying to trim a couple of them down to see how bad they looked (or so we wouldn't think they looked as bad, is more like it). I'm sure she expected a meltdown. Just sadness and shock. Not because it didn't work, but because she wrecked so many of them.

Might do that--some the plain, cleaner tree look. Thanks! :)

Lynn--Karma of the jungle--hehe!

Yes--bummer. I haven't touched them since (It's Saturday). Just needed some time before I handled them, you know? It's okay. We'll come up with something we like that will work well--never fear. :)

You'll see Leah on this video--and hear me. I'm the camera lady. ;)

Rita said...

Reba--That's funny! I hadn't been active for three years and they sent me an email a while back. So I had been trying to go there, too...but it was just "more" time on the computer when I couldn't keep up online already--duh! It does feel odd to only blog 2-3 times a week, tho, when I've been blogging almost daily for several years now. All the "deletions" have freed up my time a bit. :):)

AliceKay--We'll figure out something, I have no doubt. But I just haven't wanted to deal with them yet.

It is crazy noisy when they are working. I am running on empty--but the weekend is here--tada!

Tori--I had hoped to go to sleep during the night last night, but was so restless. Finally got up (Sat). No workmen today, tho--so maybe I can take a nap later. Karma and I are exhausted! :)

Thanks! We like the card design. Now, if I can ever get some sleep, I can start working on card parts. ;)

Sue--I know people didn't mind--chuckle! We sold a lot of these at craft tables in Moorhead. It's Leah and I that are bothered by the messy backs--we are so anal--ROFL! Thanks for the idea for another option. We do love laminating, tho, because they last for years and years when protected like that. :)

Cooled off here a lot the last three days! Chilly at night--40s! By rights--should be awesome sleeping weather--hehe! ;)